The present invention relates generally to printers and methods selecting upgrades to correct printer errors. More specifically, the present invention relates to the suggesting printer upgrades in response to the generation and communication of printer error messages to reduce the future occurrence of printer errors.
Printers are well known computer peripherals widely used in both home and business computing environments. Printer technology has made rapid advances over recent years. State of the art printers offer ever increasing levels of speed, print quality, easily manipulated format options, and a wide variety of features, such as document collating, stapling, and various levels of print quality. Printers using Inkjet or laser technology are capable of reproducing almost any image. As printer technology advances, the process of printing a document from a computer workstation involves ever increasing numbers of steps. Errors can occur at any of these steps. It has become common practice to keep an xe2x80x9cerror logxe2x80x9d in the printer memory, to track printing errors and technical problems. The repair of inoperable or damaged printers can be aided by examining the error log for patterns of errors occurring prior to breakage.
As it is used herein, the term xe2x80x9cprinterxe2x80x9d signifies any device capable of providing printer function alone or, alternatively, any device providing printer function in combination with one or more other document processing functions, such as, for example, copying, scanning, or facsimile capabilities.
Printer manufacturers often provide technical support for printing devices, including software, hardware, and firmware upgrades to resolve problems that users have encountered with printers. Unfortunately, many printers are either underutilized or inefficiently utilized as users do not understand, or are not informed, of these potential upgrades, which can allow for more trouble free printer usage. A user must be aware of both that printer errors are of the type that would benefit from an upgrade and of the availability of such an upgrade. Learning the details of available upgrades has traditionally required a user to research the manufacturer""s website, or printed materials, to examine all available printer related upgrades and then check their details for desired characteristics. Monitoring printer error patterns requires users to keep track of all printer errors, which is may be impracticable for some networked printers, or to examine and understand the printer error log. These activities may be beyond the abilities or merely beyond the xe2x80x9ccomfort levelxe2x80x9d of a casual computer user.
Printers are known in the art that provide instructions to the user for correcting simple physical problems, such as replacing an empty toner bottle or clearing a paper jam. U.S. Pat. No. 6,185,379, issued Feb. 6, 2001 to Lay et al., and U.S. Pat. No. 5,027,154 issued Jun. 25, 1991 to Ujiie et al. describe such printers, and are incorporated herein by reference. For more complex physical problems or other errors however, these systems merely advise the user to contact a repair service. These printers thus fail to provide information on the availability of upgrades that may lessen the recurrence of an error. A system or method that is capable of suggesting an upgrade that may lessen the occurrence of a printer error, in response to that error would be a substantial improvement in the art.
The present invention provides methods and apparatus for suggesting upgrades to ameliorate printer errors, in response to specific printer errors as they occur. In one embodiment, a printer contains an error detecting device and an embedded Web server in communication with a global computer network. If printer errors are detected, error messages are generated. Each error message is conveyed through the embedded web server to a remote computer. The remote computer may receive error information conveyed by a large number of printers, which can optionally be monitored and analyzed. Information on a selection of printer upgrades is maintained in a memory of the remote computer. The remote computer compares each error message received to this selection, if an upgrade corresponding to an error message is available, the system conveys a message detailing the availability of the upgrade. Methods of the present invention include providing a printer incorporating an error detector, linked to a network. The error detector monitors print jobs sent to the printer, generating an error message when an error is detected. Error messages are conveyed through the network to a remote computer where an ameliorative upgrade may be selected.